4.1 Refugees

 

ciria: 1976

Dear sports diary..  there's a new family in town!   They're called the Woods.  Their son, Wyatt, is Cora's and my age.  He speaks better English than his parents but still broken English. He has a bit of a tragic past.  He was  excited about our family's washer and dryer when their family came over but I should start from the start 

The Woods comes from a county called Afana. I overheard Wyatt get excited about the washing machines.  I did wonder why Mrs. Woods wore the head covering. I tried asking my Dad about that but we got interrupted  by Mr. Woods 

"HOW DARE YOU ALLOW YOUR WIFE AND DAUGHTERS TO PARADE AROUND IN THEIR SWIM SUITS! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY SHAME?"  Dad said "Look I'm just a so-called "Mr. Swanson". here since it's my wife's legacy, not mine.  Trust me, you don't want to want to try to get Swansons to confirm with anything, not with their history!"  I then went and played a game of chess with Wyatt. With that, he told me in broken English  that they're refugees

After the Woods left- I asked Mom "Mom, what's a refugee?"  At first, she was hesitant to tell me but she told me "a refugee is someone who flees their home country because of war or persecution.  Your great-grandma Clarissa, was one as well since she was persecuted for supposedly doing witchcraft 

Over the next few days much to Cora's hatred we're forced to play with Wyatt together in a park.  Cora HATES being outside.  She's an indoors person.  And Wyatt and I always make her the bad guy in our games and she hates that